Taiwan-US defense research exchanges have been elevated to a “semi-official” level, the Institute for National Defense and Security Research's annual report to the Legislative Yuan suggested.
The institute was last year invited by the US Indo-Pacific Command to participate in discussions about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military strategy against Taiwan, the report said.
The request indicates the level of importance the US Indo-Pacific Command places on Taiwan’s responses to the changing situation in the Taiwan Strait, the report said.
Photo: Aaron Tu, Taipei Times
This was also highlighted by the institute last year being invited for the first time to trilateral talks with Japanese and US officials, including some from the US Department of Defense’s (DOD) Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
The institute, which is Taiwan’s only official defense think tank, last year also participated in exchanges with think tanks in Australia, Europe, Japan, South Korea, the US and other countries, the report said, adding that those attending the exchanges often included active-duty military personnel and officials.
For example, one of the exchanges the institute joined was an electronic warfare symposium at the invitation of the Association of Old Crows and the US Indo-Pacific Command, the report said.
It also discussed the US redefining information warfare in response to current trends.
DOD officials who attended exchanges discussed in depth whether the US and Japan would intervene in the event of a conflict in the Taiwan Strait, how such an intervention would occur and how to send the right signals to deter China from starting a conflict, the report said.
In May last year, the institute joined 12 representatives from the National Security Council, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations, and the Ministry of National Defense to attend the Global Security Forum organized by the Center for Strategy and International Security.
Participants included Rick Waters, then-US deputy assistant secretary at the US Department of State’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs; Rush Doshi, then-China affairs director at the US National Security Council; US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for China, Taiwan and Mongolia Michael S. Chase; US Air Force Headquarters Deputy Director for Concepts and Strategy Jessica Powers; and former Royal Australian Air Force general Mark Binskin.
The institute last year also joined a delegation from the defense ministry that attended a military exercise on “gray zone” tactics with the US think tank RAND Corp.
The results of the exercise were released at the Taiwan-US Monterey Talks later in the year.
Last year the first Japan-Taiwan Strategic Dialogue was also held, during which the institute met with retired Japanese generals, as well as high-ranking officials in the Japanese government and NATO.
The institute said that it was “deeply impressed by the scale of exchanges and contacts between Japan and NATO, the linking capabilities between the two, and the depth of mutual understanding on various issues displayed by both sides.”
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